he technical expression, "play," the fancier, as
I have witnessed, by taking the beak into his mouth, blows him up like
a balloon; and the bird, then puffed up with wind and pride, struts
about, retaining his magnificent size as long as he can. Pouters often
take flight with their crops inflated; and after one of my birds had
swallowed a good meal of peas and water, as he flew up in order to
disgorge them and thus feed his nearly fledged young, I have heard the
peas rattling in his inflated crop as if in a bladder. When flying,
they often strike the backs of their wings together, and thus make a
clapping noise.

Pouters stand remarkably upright, and their bodies are thin and
elongated. In connexion with this form of body, the ribs are generally
broader and the vertebrae more numerous than in other breeds. From their
manner of standing their legs appear longer than they really are,
though, in proportion with those of _C. livia_, the legs and feet are
actually longer. The wings appear much elongated, but by measurement,
in relation to the length of body, this is not the case. The beak
likewise appears longer, but it is in fact a little shorter (about .03
of an inch), proportionally with the size of the body, and relatively
to the beak of the rock-pigeon. The Pouter, though not bulky, is a
large bird; I measured one which was 341/2 inches from tip to tip of
wing, and 19 inches from tip of beak to end of tail. In a wild
rock-pigeon from the Shetland Islands the same measurements gave only
281/4 and 143/4. There are many sub-varieties of the Pouter of different
colours, but these I pass over.

_Sub-race II. Dutch Pouter._--This seems to be the parent-form of our
improved English Pouters. I kept a pair, but I suspect that they were
not pure birds. They are smaller than English pouters, and less well
developed in all their characters. Neumeister[281] says that the wings
are crossed over the tail, and do not reach to its extremity.

_Sub-race III. The Lille Pouter_--I know this breed only from
description.[282] It approaches in general form the Dutch Pouter, but
the inflated oesophagus assumes a spherical form, as if the pigeon had
swallowed a large orange, which had stuck close under the beak. This
inflated ball is represented as rising to a level with the crown of the
head. The middle to